Where's Woody?

[piemanpete]

I've just been given permission to shoot a 35 acre winter rape field and have been out on it over the last two weekends.

 

I've been shooting pigeon for many years and I'm no great shot, but the sizes of the bags some of you are reporting are amazing - 50, 100 and more - I've *never* seen any field that busy, anywhere, anytime since the 1970s!

 

This particular field has been hammered thoroughly by Woody - only healthy patches are around the gas gun and some spinning scarers, the rest looks like it's been nuked.

 

First day out I had no decoys so just waited under a tree, camo'd up, on the flightline - score 2, very little traffic. Sunny and breezy.

 

Second day, with a friend, put out new camo pop-up hide and 12 decoys - score 2, but sky largely empty. Sunny and breezy. Gave up at 4pm.

 

Third day, on my own, with hide, 22 decoys + new (first ever) pigeon magnet - flurry of action - the magnet really does work - score 4, but skies emptied by lunchtime and they never came back. Sunny & breezy westerly. Packed up when magnet battery died.

 

Fourth day, ditto - absolutely *****r all - skies empty for miles around. More gliders and light aircraft than woodies, I kid you not. Mostly cloudy and very windy westerly. Gave up after three hours and went home. But first drove around the area to see if Woody was visiting anyone else's fields - not a sausage.

 

Now, this field is not shot every day, hence decimation of rape - pretty randomly as far as I can tell. It goes uphill slightly (this is Norfolk) towards a roosting wood at the top and I've seen them spud in there at lunchtime - I have a theory that Woody likes a siesta, returning to roost while he digests his morning's grub before heading out again for the afternoon - anyone agree or disagree?

 

But... you can only shoot Woody if he's around and no decoys can deliver Woodies if the skies are empty and this field gave me a 270 degree view for about 3-4 miles radius. Of the four I shot in the late morning on day three, two had empty crops, which was a mystery.

 

So, where do the woodies go on days when the skies are empty - how far do they wander in search of food? Where I lived in Essex - never got any shooting in four years lviing there, incidentally, farmers all paranoid about ****** and hare coursing and poaching generally and what shooting there was all sewn up by local wildfowlers - there would be an area-wide pigeon shooting day in February when *all* farms would have guns out. So no matter where Woody went, the lead dispensary was open for business. That suggests Woody will travel some distance to avoid being shot at.

 

I will return to the field and the wood at roosting time and wait for Woody to come home after a hard afternoon's rape and pillage (geddit?).

 

Maybe this is just one of mysteries of pigeon shooting and one of the reasons why Woody is unlikely ever to be an endangered species - he's just too damned clever and he's got wings to get him out of trouble faster than he gets into it.

 

Comments, commiserations, shared misery welcome!

[soreshoulder]

shared misery, 500 woodies on a field, set up, high hopes, ****** all

[mossy835]

i was shooing crows on saturday, and not 1 pigeon.in sight

[Spaniel]

Got to admit i also see plenty of crows about, more then pigeons at pesent....

[Breastman]

Same up here, i've been been out three times and i've only seen TWO pigeons and they weren't even woodies, starting to get a bit frustrated as its a 100 mile round trip to my nearest permission! Might just give it a miss until the summer now.

 

Mark

[Sprinter]

I've been shooting pigeon for many years and I'm no great shot, but the sizes of the bags some of you are reporting are amazing - 50, 100 and more - I've *never* seen any field that busy, anywhere, anytime since the 1970s!

 

I have been in pigeon fammine for several years, the last couple of days have given me feast, but im not expecting it to last. It caught me so much by suprise that I ran out of carts in both 12gauge and 20gauge form and ended up shooting them with 24g 7.5s clay carts (suprisingly effective). I'd also forgotten how heavy dead pigeon are in bulk and how to dispose of them !!!

My advice is to watch your land and keep in contact with your farmers, i only just beat a driller killer to a field of beans thanks to this having spent many months freezing my *** off covering rape fields to get two shots a day or there abouts.

[Sundowner]

I think it was a hard winter, too cold and not enough food about, that might explain the empty skies.

BTW< same around here. SO far this year I got 3 and a crow :(

Edited March 24, 2009 by Sundowner

[casts_by_fly]

up here (E yorks) I've been noticing my own fields a bit devoid. However in driving around the birds are flocked up in some big flocks right now. In Feb for roost shooting there was one big flock of 800-100 birds in a nearby wood (where we were shooting). They have broken up into groups of 50-200 right now, so you'll go a few miles without seeing a bird and then there will be a flock of 200 in a field. Seems random what they are feeding on at the moment. Rape was holding them 3 weeks ago. Now they are on fresh ploughed ground, rape, grass, or other random stuff that I couldn't tell what it was. I think the order of the day right now is safety in numbers. There are very few birds around in groups smaller than a dozen and not many of those either.

 

I suspect that hens are either nesting or starting to nest a bit too. I've seen the ferals at work with eggs already. That would account for a lot fewer birds in the air.

 

Thanks,

Rick

[Beardo]

gone a lot quieter on my permissions recently - loads of crows about though

[anser2]

Its been quiet compared to recent years in North Norfolk for wood pigeons. Reasonable numbers about at times , but no sign of the huge flocks of recent years. My friends and I have been speculating where all the pigeons are. This season their feeding pattens seem different to other years with few feeding on rape and more useage of sugar beet tops. I have 17 rape fields on my shoots and I have sometimes not even set up after visiting them all as I was unable to find any pigeons feeding on them. The pigeons have also been feeding on chickweed in winter wheat crops too. I think with a lower than normal population the birds had less compition for food and were able to feed on a wide variety than normal. This resulted in a wider spread and smaller flocks.

 

 

Its been suggested the lack of pigeons might be due to the cold winter. The last winter was not a severe one , just a return to a normal winter of the 1960\70\80s. And the wood pigeons survived those OK. However what has not been normal is the last two summers. For the second year running the breeding season for pheasants and partridges has been very poor ( its been cocks only on my shoot from October). The BTO magazine also says the last 2 summers have been the worst breeding years on record for a wide variety of small birds from finches to tits. And it would be no surprise if the wood pigeon too suffered a couple of poor breeding seasons. After all they build a flimsey nest open to the eliments and after last summer any chicks that were not tossed out in the succesive summer gales are likely to have been drenched in the never ending rain from May to October.

 

Lets hope for a good summer this year and perhaps we will see the pigeon numbers return to normal. The one silver lining to all this is that the birds are fetching a better price and all the butchers in my area are crying out for them.

Edited March 25, 2009 by anser2

[Ozzy Fudd]

only saw two pigeons on my mates land on saturday; then again the stupid **** decided to try to sight in his .223 without a moderator on half an hour before i arrived to go shoot some pigeons. i could hear the shots from my house 3 miles away

[shoughton]

I was out most of today over peas that were drilled last Friday. Hardly anything around. Got so cold that I managed to miss the 3 that did come in

 

My mate who is an ace shot only managed one today.

 

I managed to get another walking the dog at roost time - but 2 pigeons for so much effort is slightly disappointing.

 

I suspect that the high and squally winds here today didn't help. Also maybe all of the sun we had at the weekend brought clover on somewhere not on my grounds

 

Things can only get better around here!

 

Steve

[topshot]

went out this afternoon on freshy drilled wheat there was a very large number of birds pigeons/crows feeding but not at all interested in the decoys or rotary they were landing all over the place i ended up tying two plastic bags to the rotary to try and keep then moving it worked up to a certain point enough for me to get 20 of the pesky things.nearly half of them were young birds.

[anser2]

Do not forget Topshot young wood pigeons are always going to be a lot more stupid than adults and thus are more likely to be shot. Your youngsters will have been fledged in December as any older than that and they will have completed their moult and have full neck rings.

[M ROBSON]

In my area we have got more ground being used for spring drills than normal due to the wet summer last year mucking up the winter drilling. The last 8 days have been dry so every farm has been out drilling as fast as they can! this has resulted in pigeons dispersing and the large concentrations thinning out across the county to feed on the abundance of new food.

Our best individual bag so far on drillings is 90 on a Barley drill earlier this week. On a normal year we'd have had a few 100 plus bags already.

It's all swings and roundabouts though, the poor germination and patchy winter drills mean there will be plenty of blown fields for the summer shooting come July!!!!!

 

 

Cheers,

Mark.

 

 

ps,

I spoke to a seed merchant last week and he said he's sold more peas this year since 1983!!!!!!!There's time yet for the spring drills to come good. Roll on the peas next week!!!!

[Cranfield]

The birds haven't disappeared, they are just dispersed into smaller groups and pairs and have lots of food choices at the moment.

Like M Robson, in my area we have large fields of drillings everywhere, plus the clover coming through and pigeons are still on the thinner rape areas taking the new shoots.

 

Find the field they really like and you can have a big bag day, otherwise keep on the move and take what comes.

[MK38]

As has been said they have largely dispersed into small groups and pairs , at least around this way.

Spent hours this week touring the area and have found them feeding on Clover, Buds, Drillings and Rape... the largest flock i saw, several hundred birds was on a Wheat field that's at least 5" high, of course they weren't eating the Wheat .... but the weeds that grow amongst them, Chickweed and the like.

 

If you can find an area with a decent number of birds around it, you will see them still form into flocks on certain fields, coming in as single's , pairs and small groups, so it makes shooting more constant and a bit easier..... all you got to do is find them first !

 

An hour or two driving round with the glasses will reveal what's happening in your area..... look for them in the sky, rather than the fields, and you should see what they are going for.

 

If like me you have only a few fields to shoot over , then your stuffed if they choose a neighbours field... unless you can get under a flightline and decoy them down.

But as you say, if they aren't there , you can't shoot them !

 

Dave